You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me… – Psalm 32:7

       “We catch sharks for Chinese restaurants because the Chinese like shark fins,” said the boatman, as our rickety boat sailed off Zambales. “But what if the sharks like me?” I said to myself.

       I was then on a mission to San Salvador Island in behalf of Pag-asa ng Pamilya Scholarship Foundation, one of our mercy ministries. Then in the middle of the sea, the boat’s engine just conked out.

       I prayed hard to all the saints in the calendar. I prayed even to those not yet saints; I canonized them. I prayed for intercession. I asked Jesus to come and fix our boat. I asked Him to drive away the sharks and not make dinner out of us.

      God answered my prayers. He saved me and my not environmentally-conscious boatman from trouble. The boat engine finally roared back to life, and we sailed on in God’s protection. Hallelujah!

     The sharks just got malnourished that day. Sorry about that.  Rey Ortega (reylindo.ortega@gmail.com)

Reflection: When troubles come, and they will come sooner or later, let’s not forget that Jesus jumps at every opportunity to come to us if we make Him our hiding place.    

Lord, please help me not become like Peter who doubted when he tried to walk on water. Help me to trust in You — and in You alone — 100 percent.

Blessed Jolenta (Yolanda) of Poland, pray for us.

Nathan confronts David about having Uriah the Hittite killed in battle in order to take his wife. What David did was horrible. However, his repentance (as beautifully described in Psalm 51) encourages us to have hope in the Lord’s forgiveness. Today’s Psalm expresses the beauty of this hope as we are called to repent of our sins and trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness. It is this promise of forgiveness — receiving God’s mercy and forgiving others — that truly marks the fundamental innovation of Christianity.

2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13

7 Nathan said to David: “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king of Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your lord’s house and your lord’s wives for your own. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were not enough, I could count up for you still more. 9 Why have you spurned the Lord and done evil in his sight? You have cut down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife as your own, and him you killed with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan answered David: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.”

Psalm 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11

R: Lord, forgive the wrong I have done.

1 Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed the man to whom the Lord imputes not guilt, in whose spirit there is no guile. (R) 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I covered not. I said, “I confess my faults to the Lord,” and you took away the guilt of my sin. (R) 7 You are my shelter; from distress you will preserve me; with glad cries of freedom you will ring me round. (R) 11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you just; exult, all you upright of heart. (R)

The forgiveness of sins that we receive from God cannot be earned. He chooses to forgive us so that we can be reconciled with Him and one another. We are given the opportunity to be like Christ if we forgive those who have sinned against us. Perhaps this is the closest we can be to being Christ-like — choosing to walk the path of forgiveness as Christ has done with us.

Galatians 2:16, 19-21

16 Brothers and sisters: We who know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 19 For through the law I died to the law that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ; 20 yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

GOSPEL

The one who has been forgiven much will love more. This is one of the fruits of forgiveness. It is a beautiful thing to witness someone who truly forgives as well as someone who is forgiven. We will have plenty of opportunities to be on both sides of this equation as we walk through life with its ups and downs.

God loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

36 A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him, and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. 37 Now there was a sinful woman in the city who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee. Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 she stood behind him at his feet weeping and began to bathe his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus said to him in reply, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people were in debt to a certain creditor; one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty. 42 Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both. Which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon said in reply, “The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.” He said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment. 47 So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 48 He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 But he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” 8:1 Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and 1proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Accompanying him were the Twelve 2 and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, 3 Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

think: The forgiveness of sins that we receive from God cannot be earned.

Thank You Lord for: __________________

A SINCERE GESTURE OF REPENTANCE

Our Sunday Gospel passage today offers us a pair of contrasting characters: the Pharisee and the sinful woman. The former was the one who invited Jesus to dine with him. The latter, however, was suddenly there on the scene, doing precisely what the Pharisee omitted: washing the feet of Jesus. What was supposed to be a standard Jewish ceremonial practice of welcome and hospitality was used by the woman as her gesture of sincere repentance and sorrow for her sins.

      More than performing rituals and gestures, genuine conversion implies  truthfulness and sincerity. We know that to turn away from one’s sins can  be a terribly painful experience, especially when sin has become a habit. But painful as it may be, it is nevertheless an emergence from darkness onto light, a new birth, an awakening to joy.

       In the Second Reading, St. Paul eloquently expresses a radical, interior change: “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” Conversion means letting God now take over as our Master and life-principle, as opposed to the slavery and death-dealing of sin. But difficult as this may be, St. Paul is quick to add humbly: “Insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given Himself up for me.”

       Towards the end of the Gospel, there is a paragraph with a list of women’s names — all of them disciples of Jesus, but who were also “cured of evil spirits and infirmities.” They simply continue the constant and consistent line of repentant sinners starting with King David (the former adulterer), Paul (the former persecutor), and the woman who washed Jesus’ feet. Whereas, after the cold-hearted and judgmental Pharisee, there is no one else.

       I suppose we should know where to line up. Fr. Martin Macasaet, SDB

REFLECTION QUESTION: Where do you line up — that of the line of David or that of the Pharisee?

Dearest Lord, thank You for forgiving me of my countless sins — then and now — and for always waiting for me to return to You whenever I have strayed. Amen.